"Catastrophes such as the Texas flood are social crimes, committed by a financial aristocracy that has spent the past half-century [longer!] plundering the country and neglecting its social infrastructure, while accumulating unimaginable sums of personal wealth.

It is not that society cannot afford the type of social investment needed to prevent or minimize the impact of events such as Hurricane Harvey. What society cannot afford is the rich..."

"Catastrophes such as the Texas flood are social crimes, committed by a financial aristocracy that has spent the past half-century [longer!] plundering the country and neglecting its social infrastructure, while accumulating unimaginable sums of personal wealth.

It is not that society cannot afford the type of social investment needed to prevent or minimize the impact of events such as Hurricane Harvey. What society cannot afford is the rich..."

Catastrophes such as the Texas flood are social crimes, committed by a financial aristocracy that has spent the past half-century [longer!] plundering the country and neglecting its social infrastructure

I'm curious what "social infrastructure" would have/could have stopped a storm.

Or would a better social infrastructure have had better cots layed out in a better gymnasium?

There is a definite relation between both climate change and increasing severity of storms, and the systematic refusal of the US to ensure protective measures (as in Katrina; the Dutch couldn't believe the horrible state of the levées) but as usual, wsws has a ridiculously mechanical pseudo-Marxist take on just about everything. They also devote more of their energies to attacking anything at all on the left, from the NDP through other Marxist or anarchist groups, as petit-bourgeois fake-leftists.

Their main activity is attending or leafleting the meetings or actions of social movements or political groups so they see the Light; kind of like the Sparts with a better editor.

Catastrophes such as the Texas flood are social crimes, committed by a financial aristocracy that has spent the past half-century [longer!] plundering the country and neglecting its social infrastructure

I'm curious what "social infrastructure" would have/could have stopped a storm.

Or would a better social infrastructure have had better cots layed out in a better gymnasium?

Better city planning would have mitigated some of the damage and loss. Houston is infamous for loose regulations on developers, who will not voluntarily build the kind of infrastructure that can save lives and minimize displacement in a disaster.

While Harvey was was particularly big storm, this isn't the first time Houston has dealt with a hurricane and massive flooding. It's the penny wise pound foolish way the city's been built that made it worse.

Josh beat me to the first point. Also, the massive amount of freeway - Which was actually designed to act like rivers, making it almost impossible to evacuate efficiently. People get stuck in gridlock, the water rises... Totally idiotic planning.

I visited Houston once while working - so much freeway. I've never seen anything like it. And the crazy, multiple levels and complicated ramps and exits. Utterly insane.

Experts say better urban design and stricter regulations might have made the deadly storm less destructive.

"Houston is not designed to handle this kind of rainfall," said Professor Sam Brody, an expert on urban and floodplain management at Texas A&M University.

It's not like the nation's fourth-largest city isn't aware of the problem. Tropical Storm Allison triggered mass flooding and caused 20 Texas deaths in 2001. Last April, storms in Houston flooded more than 1,000 homes and were blamed for $5 billion in property damage."

In Texas, the devastation from Hurricane Harvey continues. At least 63 people have died, more than 40,000 homes have been lost, and as many 1 million cars have been destroyed. Meanwhile, the long-term environmental impact of the storm is just beginning to be felt. The Center for Biological Diversity reports flooded oil refineries and chemical plants released as much as 5 million pounds of pollutants into the air during the storm. On Friday night, another large fire broke out at the flooded Arkema chemical plant in Crosby, Texas. Then, on Sunday, authorities set fire to six remaining containers of chemicals in what was described as a controlled burn. The company continues to refuse to inform local residents of what chemicals burned at the site. For more, Democracy Now!'s Amy Goodman, Renée Feltz and Hany Massoud take a "toxic tour" of Houston's fenceline communities, led by environmental justice organizer Bryan Parras.